Bain Signs 378 KSF Office Renewal, Expansion in Boston
Bain Capital has signed a 378,000-square-foot lease renewal and expansion for its headquarters at BXP’s 200 Clarendon St., a 1.7 million-square-foot office tower in Boston. In 2010, Bain signed a 15-year lease to occupy 208,000 square feet at the building, with the option to expand to 270,000 square feet prior to occupancy, which took place one year later.
That same year, BXP purchased the tower for $930 million from a joint venture between Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners.
Initially designed by Henry Cobb of I. M. Pei & Partners in the late 1960s, the tower came online in 1976. Rising 790 feet, 200 Clarendon St. is New England’s tallest building and one of Boston’s landmarks.
The 62-story tower features 50,000-square-foot floorplates and an adjacent eight-story parking garage with 2,013 spots. The high-rise was 95.2 percent leased as of June 2024, according to BXP’s supplement for 2024’s second quarter.
Located inside Boston’s central business district, the tower is within walking distance of the Charles River, Public Garden and the Boston Common.
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Following the acquisition in 2010, BXP started implementing a two-phase capital improvement program. The first touched on mechanical system replacement and the second focused on controls modernization.
The developer also implemented an energy conservation measure to reduce the building’s environmental impact. Several key initiatives improved energy performance—reducing electricity consumption by upward of 27 percent—certifying 200 Clarendon St. with LEED Gold and an Energy Star score of 83.
Bain Capital took charge of improving its headquarters as well. The private investment company tapped Commodore Builders and CBT Architects for a multi-level renovation effort targeting floors 38, 43 and 44. The project focused on mechanical, electrical and plumbing reworks, as well as the installation of a decorative stair, among others.
Boston’s low office vacancy in newly-debuted properties
In the second quarter of 2024, Greater Boston registered 1.4 million square feet of leasing activity, according to an Avison Young report. This marked an increase of roughly 100,000 square feet compared to the previous quarter. However, the volume made up only about half of the five-year quarterly average of 2.5 million square feet.
Greater Boston is expected to see roughly 5.3 million square feet of office leases to expire in the next two quarters, the report shows. Consequently, the vacancy rate—which stood at 23.1 percent as of June—is likely to be impacted, should tenants be wary about renewal.
While the flight-to-quality trend continues, the report revealed that prime office buildings constructed in the 2010s and 2020s witnessed the lowest vacancy, at 13.6 percent during the same time interval. Conversely, the highest vacancy rate was found in office properties that debuted in the 1990s, clocking in at 23.7 percent.
According to a second-quarter BXP report on leasing activity, the company inked another 120,000-square-foot lease renewal at 200 Clarendon St. The report mentions a total of 1.3 million square feet of leases were inked nationally by BXP during the same interval, with a weighted average lease term of 9.0 years.
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